Will You Give Up or Keep on Writing

It is a well known fact that people are usually told to never give up on themselves in life. It is one of the lessons parents always like to teach to their children. I continue to try and impart such wisdom on my kids daily. But, do we really put this into action in the real word? How many times have you been told that what you have done was not good enough just to leave it at that and walk away? How many times have you asked for a second chance? I am here to tell you that it is always worth asking for. I am here to tell you that those lessons we have been taught by our parents and that we in turn teach to our children are well worth the effort.

Keep Going. Never Stop.

In the distant past I held a few sales jobs. None of the jobs really led to anything special, but I gained valuable knowledge while working in that field. I am naturally an outgoing person so as a salesman I had that to my advantage. Although I was a good talker there is a lot more than just talking to people involved in sales. One of the main things that I learned, among many other things, was to never take no for an answer. Be resilient. Never give up.

I took that to heart. There is a well known statistic in the sales industry and it is used as a training tool.  
For every 20 "nos" you will get 1 "yes" on average anyway. This is true. It is also an example of why you need to keep going. Imagine a door-to-door salesman. Walking down the street, knocking on doors, attempting to sell his wares. He will have to knock on 20 doors before he gets one person interested or curious enough to welcome him in for a deeper explanation of his product. You must keep going.

I kept telling myself this while I was placing bid after bid on Elance. No matter how frustrated I got I just kept remembering my days in sales. I knew that if I persevered something would come out of it. Wouldn't you know it, it finally did. A couple weeks ago I got a hit on one of my bids and now I am working with the person consistently. It is not a big job, but it is a job. It is just what I was looking for. A win.

Getting a Second Chance

After working for about three weeks with the person I connected with on Elance, I got another opportunity. This time it seemed as if it was for a job that would offer consistency. This is what I have been looking for. A consistent job that at least for the most part I could count on. So I followed the instructions for the bid and placed my proposal. The reply came in and they requested that I send in a "test" article based on the keyword phrase they gave me. I figured, ok. No problem. I have done this plenty of times.

I wrote the article and sent it in. At this point I was excited. I was nervous. I really wanted this job to work out because of the promise of consistency. I got my hopes up too high. The next day I got a reply to the article that I had sent in and it said, "Sorry. This is not what we are looking for." I was crushed.

I had not put all my eggs into one basket so to speak, but instead all of my hopes.  If this was any other circumstance I think I would have just deleted the thread of messages and emails and just moved on. As if none of that had ever happened. That is the great thing about technology today. You can wipe out everything if you want to. So I took a couple hours and I thought about it. As it turned out, the reason my article was not "accepted" was because it went in the wrong direction. I had not paid enough attention to what they were looking for.

So I decided that I needed to follow my own school of thought on this one and keep going. So I emailed and explained my situation and how I misunderstood the meaning of the article and what they were looking for. I essentially asked for a second chance. It was granted.

So I re-wrote the article and I did so along the lines of what they were looking for. After submitting the revised work I got an email explaining that the second time around was much better and that I had the job! If I had not asked for a second chance or had I not decided to keep going and to not give up I would have moved on and would not have a new job that I start this coming Monday.

Believing in Yourself

It is cliche and a bit tacky to some to say that, "you must always believe in yourself". "You must never give up. Always fight on!" But you know what, it is true. It is all true.

Think about it. Who else are you going to put faith in if not yourself? This is especially true for writers. We all put ourselves out there with everything that we submit. Everything we write is a piece of us. Whether it is our byline or not, there is a piece of us in everything that we do. It is sorta like walking into a crowd naked and exposed.

That being the case, you must be proud of what you do. You must believe that what you have written is what you want it to be. If you cannot believe in your own work then you might as well not be in this profession. Writing can be an escape for some and for others it can be a sword that they wield with the power of the Gods. No matter which your writing is for you, if you do not believe in what you write and your ability to do so then you will never have the power to lift that sword.

What to Watch

I spend a great deal of time watching television. Or at least that is what my wife tells me. I actually do not watch as much as I would like to. Really. That is the truth.

So why does she think I watch so much of it? Probably because I see more shows than she does. Because I know more about what is going on in a particular show, it makes her think that I have seen every possible episode of the show leading up to that point. It is a fair observation really. Just not always the truth.

Discovering Some New Shows

It is like I tell my son when he asks if I have tried a new video game (which I used to fill most of my free time with). "I just do not have as much free time as I would like, so the time that I do have I must use as effectively as possible."

That means that if I have say, only one hour with which to watch television on a particular day, I must make sure that whatever I watch in that hour is enjoyable. I cannot let it go to waste. That being said, lately I have not had much free time. So I have to choose what to watch carefully. Now after some careful consideration and with a history of not steering me wrong before, I have been watching a couple #BBC America over the last few weeks.

Now I am not sure how big of a following they have over here or even how big these shows are on the other side of the pond. But for me, the shows that I have been watching have been great and I cannot wait until more free time presents itself because I know what I will be doing with it.

I have yet to do any research on any of the following shows that I am about to discuss. Usually that is one of the first things that I do, even when I am going to write about something that I know inside and out. I just like to always be prepared. But in this case, for some reason, I just wanted to talk about them. I think my favorites right now are #Luther and #Broadchurch.

Both shows are heavy dramas and both of them are acted so well that it is amazing to me some of these people have not hit it bigger. Or maybe I am just not paying enough attention - which is entirely possible. I first started to see promos for #Luther while watching #Broadchurch. They were enticing and they would show just enough of the show to catch my attention and make me want to see more. So one day I finally caught up with Broadchurch and there were no more new episodes, so I went for Luther.

Here is the thing about the show. It is not a regular series in the fact that they do not air ten to 15 episodes per season. The first season only had six episodes and the second only four. So this is more akin to a mini-series but one that comes back every year. When I hear the term "mini-series" I think of something that airs for two to three episode only once. There is nothing mini about this show.

The writing is simply spectacular and the acting brings it to life beautifully. On top of that, and I do not say this often about a television show, but the music actually helps to bring the show up or down. There was an episode I watched the other day (which one does not matter as they are all worthy of praise) and by the end of the show I was actually sitting there, mouth agape, then the music to end the episode came on and I was riveted. I just sat there listening to the music contemplating what I had just seen. It has been a very long while since I was put in such a mood by a television show.

Of course there are a lot of shows that try to work various angles and all the different ways to tell a story. The characters within a story are very important and in a T.V. series even more so I think. The writer has an opportunity to build on a character through different episodes and work them into the plot in various ways. Sometimes, well most times actually, with the standard show there are limitations to how well or how deep one can develop a character. This is mostly the case because the writers try to squeeze it all in to one episode. Especially in the modern crime drama. There is a sense that the bad guy must be caught in the same episode they are introduced in.

Why is that? Why do they feel as if the criminal must be dealt with right away? I'm not sure of the reasoning behind it, and I am also not sure if that whole philosophy is just different in the U.K. or not. What I do know is that in #Luther they do not feel the need to complete an investigation, catch the bad guy, or put the story to rest in a single episode. The show has benefited from this because there is no overwhelming feeling that all the world's troubles must be resolved every week.

I like that about the show. There is no anxiety as the hour draws to a close that they must catch the guy who is out there. This allows the writers to draw in more angles to the story. To develop more character arcs and ultimately round out the show to a point were it more realistically reflects the world that we live in. I think that a show such as this with all it's great acting, wonderful writing, and stellar editing, music, and filming will take home a lot of awards and hopefully remain on the air for some time. I for one would miss it sorely should it complete this season and be done for good. There is no show in America that even comes close.

Cannot Forget about Broadchurch

With all of this talk about Luther, I almost neglected to talk about my other favorite #BBC America show, #Broadchurch. As far as dramas go this one is top notch. While I do not see this one going anywhere once they find Danny's killer, it has surely been very enjoyable getting there.

When I first decided to watch this one I had absolutely no idea what it was about. I mean, I had seen a promo for it and knew that it was a crime drama of sorts but I had no clue about the specifics. After watching it for about the first twenty minutes however I was hooked and I think it was at that point that I had made a decision to stick with it until the end. The one thing that catches my attention about the #BBC shows is the fact that I do not know any of the actors. This gives every show that I watch on this channel a bit more realism to me. Since I do not recognize the faces there is not that much of a stretch in the imagination department in order for me to get into the story.

The acting in this one is just about as good as in #Luther but then again they are different shows even though they both share the crime drama genre. That being said I think that cast of Luther does a bit of a better job in this department. Don't let that take anything away from the cast of Broadchurch however. They are great and the show itself is wonderful as well. The one difference in these two shows is the overall feeling of finality.

Broadchurch will eventually come to an end, and I fear that it is nearing. Again, I have done no research for this article like I normally would have but I do not think the show will continue once the killer is found. Sure, the talented writing staff they have could surely come up with a way to continue the story of a community ripped apart by the murder of a young boy. But I don't think it would play well, especially once the main theme of the story ends. So with that in mind every episode that I watch has an eery feeling about it because I know that it is one step closer to ending. Every time a big clue is found or the coppers fall into a big lead that pans out I get a little worried.

Next on the Agenda

Moving forward I'm not too sure what I will find next to watch in what little free time I do have. I know I have to get back on track with my updates and posts here - not to mention my other work and website (www.lookingforearth.com). No matter what happens though I know for a fact that I will always check the BBC show listing from now on. In the past I would glance at it here and there but would never pay much attention to anything on it. That will never happen again as I will always give #BBC the time it deserves.

There are quite a lot of good shows on the various networks today. Then  there are those who's time have passed or those that did not get a fair shake. Shows like #TheAmericans fore example. I really liked it but it seems as if it will not be returning. Then again, like I said, no research prior to this post. I have to make sure that this is the only time I do that. If nothing else I just tire of stating that fact.

In addition - the Fall shows are returning and more are on their way. September in America always brings with it many new shows as well as the triumphant return of some old ones.#SonsofAnarchy comes to mind as one such show. What all this tell me is that I need to find a way to get some more free time! 

Which One?

I have taken a bit of a step back of late. Most of the writing that I have done has been of the work variety. That is a good thing however and I actually wish that I had more of it. Thing is though - I need to have a certain amount of writing that I enjoyable. A certain amount of writing that I want to do. Things that when I am finished, I feel as if I did something fun. Although it might seem a bit cheesy or out there, every now and again I really enjoy the writing.

"If you love what you do you will never work a day in your life."

I do not know who said that, or even if it is a quote by a single person or just a saying in general. You don't need me to tell you that it is true. It should be obvious. Based on the context of this post, does it now beg the question; do I love what I do?

I certainly like it. But I do not love it. There are plenty of other things that I would do for work that I could say that I loved. Maybe if I made a lot more money doing what I do. Maybe then I would love it. But not now.

So then why on Earth would I even bring all of this up or start a post with this idea?

There are a lot of different jobs that a person can do. Each of us is not only good at certain tasks but we all have various things that we like to do as well. We do these things because well, we have to is we want to survive and provide for those that we love. So we go to work and we do what we need to do in order to earn money. Some of us go to school to learn various things so that we can, one day, use that knowledge in the pursuit of more money. Then of course there are those who seem to have been born with a silver spoon up their bum. Seems like everything good always happens to them. Either that or they just happen to have the financial support behind them for whatever they might want to do. They might have been born into it or it was given to them. Either way, these people have not worked for, nor have they earned anything that they now possess.

So based on that we now have two classes of people. Those who work for their money and those who are handed theirs. I guess the only question that remains now is which one are you?

Where Has the Work Gone? That is a Good Question.

Lately much of what I have written about here is referencing the supposed downfall of the "Get Paid To Write" industry. While I have only based my opinion on the few sites that I used, I still feel my opinion to be solid. I have seen (and heard) a couple varying opinions about the industry of late and in this post I intend to address all of them as well as to reiterate my opinion on the matter.

First, let me take you back to the beginning. Back to a few weeks ago when I first started to notice the lack of work where there used to be an abundance. Like I said above, I based my opinion on the sites that I used and not on the entire lot of them. A small sample size some would say. However small, the 6 sites that I would write for accounted for a decent amount of money. Not that I was getting rich, but I was able to remain in my current station and was not forced to seek a part time or full time job out in the Real World. So the money was at least sufficient.

While I am not going to just start listing off the sites that I would work for, I will say that I have mentioned them many times before in various posts both here and in the Google Plus communities. In addition, I have worked for 4 out of the 6 sites for over two years. So I have a nice amount of time to base my so-called theories on as well. And here they are:

I believe that the "Get Paid To Write" industry is in the midst of a change. I am not yet sure to what degree or to what extent, but something is surely amiss. Again, places where I would easily have enough work to keep me busy at least for 4 hours daily are now devoid of any work at all. Are they all disappearing? No, they still remain and work does pop up every now and again. But nowhere near where it was before.

Also, there are a couple sites that I would always have an easy time getting in touch with either live support or  email based support. Now... nothing. I cannot even get a reply when writing to the Big Cheese. So what does this mean? I'm not sure yet. Nor am I some industry guru either. But, I have noticed this altered way of doing business and I am worried. Worried because I liked working for these sites and worried because I liked the money.

The reason I liked working for the sites that I did was because they were responsive to my requests/questions, and they paid ON TIME and ACCURATELY! To me this is very important.

So what is this change? Could they be merging? Going out of business? Losing contracts? I really cannot say for sure. But the crappy part about all of this is that I have been forced to seek work in places that I stayed away from for a reason. For example.. I have done some work for Article Teller and Hire Writers in the past, so I hit them up again. While they had some work to be done it was not all that desirable. Plus their payments were more on the low end from what I was used to. Either way.. it was work so I did a couple.

Here is the problem. Out of the 4 article that I did for both sites all of them were rejected! Now this is not my ego talking when I say that I know the work was not "below standard" or below what they either expected or what they can sell to their clients. I have had this thought before about these sites (and others) but I really think when they reject my work they are just looking to get the writing for free. They reject it, still sell it to their client so they get paid. But by rejecting it on my end they do not have to pay me, the writer.

I suppose that I could scour the net looking for my written work, but that takes time. Time that I do not have because I need to work and make money. In  a way, they have me by the short hairs. There are not to many options in this scenario. None else that I can see anyway. The best one that I can see? To no longer write for either of these sites again.

Some of the other opinions that I have heard around the water cooler of late? That maybe the sites are just in a down period. While this is entirely possible and would make sense, this would also mean that at some point they would rise back up. Yet I have not seen such a thing happen yet. Then again these things take time and they do not happen on my time table. So patience is needed.

Another.. maybe I am just not writing for the right places? Well.. this could very well be. My problem here is that I have, for most of the sites that I use, been working with them for on average two years. IN that time you would think that I would have found both the good sites and the bad ones. I would have also, in that time, gravitated towards the good ones. Now this I have done, certainly. And sure.. there are some bad sites in my list. But most of them are good ones. I do not make a habit of saving web addresses of places that I do not like to visit. People rarely do.

In my opinion there are generally two types of writing in this business. There is the SEO style and the Creative style. I think for the most part good writers prefer the Creative style. SEO is ok but it is too keyword heavy and lacks a certain.. story to the writing. Yet it is the SEO that people in the content market generally want to pay for because in the long run it is what drives search results to their sites and therefore to their wallet.

Even though this is true I have not found much by way of the SEO market either. IT seems that the work has dried up in both arenas. Why, I just do not know. But I would like to find out. I would like to be able to get back to getting paid for my writing as well as being able to tell myself that I am "working". That is a rather satisfying feeling is it not? And while not too many of us have gotten rich in this line of work it is the potential that I think keeps many of us in it. The potential of our work getting out there or our name becoming worth something and therefore driving more lucrative work our way. I keep searching for this and other answers and if I should find any, you can count on me writing about them here.

IS IT JUST ME, OR IS IT THEM?

Ahh.. here we are, back to the topic of writing articles for money.

I have been doing this for a couple years now and for the most part things have been good. Even in the bad times things were at least decent. These days however it seems to me that the status of the industry (if you can call it that) is on the downfall.

Don't just take my word for it. See how your experiences compare to mine. Check this out:

• For the last two months I have seen the most consistent site that I have worked for go from having work nearly everyday to having work once every 5 days (if that).
• Two of my "back-up" sites, sites that I work for when my main site has no articles to write, are rejecting about 95% of the work I do. This can't be right. For one, they always accepted my work before. And for two I know the work that I submit is not "poor quality". Sometimes I wonder if they are rejecting my work just so they do not have to pay out and the requester is still keeping the articles.  Wish there was an easy way to check this.
• The work requirements for certain tiers of compensation have increased. For example: The site might list a certain category as 300 words which is supposed to have work averaging about 300 words. But when you read the details for the requested job, they ask for "more than 470 words". Essentially they are getting a 500 or more word piece for the 300 word price. 

While some might just say that I am nit-picking or being petty about these work requirements. I can see how it would look that way. But let me say that for someone who has worked in this "industry" for multiple years now, it was not like this before. At least not for the sites that I would have considered "good". I only signed up with those kinds of sites. I never went with the cheaper ones out there. If you have been doing this for a while you know what I mean. There are good and bad content sites.

Oh yea.. and today I checked a couple of the reviews for work that I did last night. I was working for a site called "Article Teller" . Not the greatest, but there are worse sites out there. I only did two articles for them last night because I did not want to invest too much of my time in something that I was not sure about. Even though I have worked with them a lot in the past, some of their clients have been rather shady lately. And I fear that I ran into another one last night.

When checking over the reviews of my work from yesterday I saw that both of my articles were rejected! Now, I am not a prick. If my work was rejected for legitimate reasons I can take it. I have no problem revising my work to meet a clients standards or requests. All they need to do is tell me what they want. But when I clicked on the "notes" to see why it was turned down I was shocked to see, "rejected for English too poor for peer review process".

I had to laugh when I read that. Well, then I was mad. "Thank god I did not spend too much time doing work for them yesterday" I thought to myself. So of course I wrote a note to the "requester" asking for more specific detail on why my article was rejected. I said that I could not accept "English too poor" as a reason. Not when I see how people destroy the language every day on the net.

I know this has been a bit on the rant side of things but I had to blow off some steam. I must also apologize to my readers for most of my posts being about this topic of late. It is just that I have been doing this type of work for a while now and seeing the industry fall apart before my eyes is disheartening. Especially when I was making decent money for a while there when the work was consistent. Now I make next to nothing. It is truly sad. I promise, I will start writing about other things soon enough... :)

Thanks for your patience and understanding!